Will cost taxpayers $4.1 mil.

According to published reports, the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority is spending $4.1 mil. of your tax dollars to guess how much cargo and how many airline passengers Lindbergh Field will accommodate in the future.

The study is to be completed by 2011 when it likely will be outdated. It could be finished sooner to complement one in the works by a task force commissioned by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders that is expected to be out next year. More appropriate would be a study to learn if these folks have nothing else to do but launch multi-million $$$$ studies to put on the shelf.

Shore school site clears escrow

Surfside City residents now own the 5.3-acre Ninth Street parcel the city purchased from the Del Mar Union School District for $8.5 mil. In the transaction, the Winston School has secured a 55-year lease and will continue to operate on campus. The district’s administration office will remain on site for three years while it relocates elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Friends of Del Mar Parks — headed by Laura deMarco, Joe Sullivan and Winston School Headmaster Mike Peterson — will continue the campaign to raise $3.5 mil. still outstanding on its pledge to keep the site an open space forever. A community celebration held June 1 was a rousing success with a banner supportive turnout.

Wildfire preparedness

Night flying by fire-suppressant aircraft may be allowed this year if Cal Fire bureaucrats complete making necessary changes to regs that now prohibit flying these aircraft after sunset. Meanwhile, two Cal Air National Guard aircraft may not be ready for duty because of equipment issues according to published reports. Nevertheless, two water bombers and a third support aircraft should be online. These have been leased by the County Board of Supervisors for $3 mil.

Fairgrounds for sale?

State electeds are scurrying about looking for ways to balance a budget that is out of budget by as much as $17 bil., give or take a few mil. The Governator has suggested selling state-owned property and the fairgrounds has been mentioned. Price tag? $1.4 bil. This would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for those who pine to see it as park land to step up to the plate with checkbook or credit card in hand and buy it. Probably would be a tax-deductible item.

Here this summer?

Big Brown, the presumed Triple Crown champion if he wins the Belmont Stakes on June 7, might be lured to compete in Del Mar’s million-dollar Pacific Classic on Aug. 24, which is the highlight of the meet. Cigar attempted to extend his 16-race winning streak in the 1996 Classic, which drew a record 44,821 spectators. They were stunned when Dare & Go beat Cigar by 3 1/2 lengths and paid a whopping $81.20 on a $2 wager.

20 years for eco-terrorist

A Placer County resident has been sentenced up to 20 years in a federal slammer after being convicted of conspiring to destroy a dam, genetic lab and other properties. He was identified as being associated with Earth Liberation Front, an organization that has been suspected of torching residential developments under construction in San Diego and North County.

Cleaner Hodges water

Rep. Brian Bilbray has secured $20 mil. from the House of Representatives to help clean up Lake Hodges water before it flows into the Olivenhain Reservoir plant. Total cost for the cleansing project, however, is much more than that so Bilbray is looking to Senators Feinstein and Boxer to help out.

Same outfit, new name

Del Mar Regional Chamber of Commerce, chartered in 1946 as Del Mar Chamber, has outgrown its previous names and July 1 becomes San Diego Coastal Chamber of Commerce. The late Stu Green, the village druggist, was charter president when the organization served as the official link between the village and the Board of Supervisors. Early on, several of the North County communities were organized under a single umbrella until they decided to claim their own identity.

For a cleaner beach

Terry Smith, the Flower Capital’s Parks & Rec supervisor, sez the city will provide free trash bags on the beach so visitors can use them for disposing of their litter (as well as others’ trash). Black bags will be available for litter and blue ones for recyclables. Bags can be left at bag stations for pick up by a city crew. Great idea and kudos to Parks & Rec.

Response to item on speaker

Steven Maviglio of Assemblyman Fabian Nunez’ staff, responding to an item titled “Parting Effort” that appeared on May 23 in this column, writes the former speaker made two different proposals for redistricting and pushed for a floor vote on a senate proposal that did not receive the needed two-third majority. He added that none of the speaker’s redistricting bills were tied to term limits but were standalone. According to Maviglio, the speaker supported an initiative that was not tied to redistricting to extend term limits. His new proposal ties the two according to Maviglio.

Why poppies?

Folks have asked the significance of poppies sold by the VFW around Memorial Day. In 1922, Col. John McCrae was inspired when he visited an American cemetery in France. He wrote:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow between the crosses row on row.

That mark our place, and in the sky. The larks still bravely singing fly.

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago. We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow

Loved and were loved,

Now we lie in Flanders Field.

Take up our quarrel with the foe.

To you from failing hands we throw.

The torch be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Field.

(Now you know the background of the VFW “Buddy” poppies)

One liners

San Diego County Fair is selling combination admission tix and wristband vouchers for its second annual Craft Brewers Competition & Festival on June 21 that will give visitors an opportunity to sample suds from around the universe ... Latest national reports say newspaper circulation continues to slide with the L.A. Times being the major decliner — 5.13 percent from the previous year ... Joe Sheffo will be doing a lot of hand shaking at his 20th annual San Dieguito High School reunion now that he’s running for the Flower Capital city council ... During an invasive plant report during the May 21 Flower Capital council meeting, Paul Ecke said he was happy to see poinsettias had been removed from the poisonous category ... Join your neighbors at Environment Day festivities at Cottonwood Creek Park in the Flower Capital from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.



Hasta la Vista